All together better: Unifying community voices to influence policy

All together better: Unifying community voices to influence policy

Who is driving the narrative of a country, its people and therefore the policies that get designed as a result?

We believe that communities can and should play a bigger role in shaping policy. What happens when communities start to come together as one voice to collaborate with policy makers?

This Collective Conversation will look at dialogue across hierarchies and collective voice building as a route to social change. We’ll be discussing how the collective actions of communities within and across sectors and geographies, can influence and inspire shifts in policy.

To provide provocation and stimulation on the topic, we’ll be hearing from two incredible guest speakers:

Ciku Mbugua

Ciku is an innovation manager at Brink. On behalf of one of Brink's core programmes, the EdTech Hub, she supports government, development partners and EdTech entrepreneurs with evidence and technical assistance to accelerate the integration of technology in education. Beyond the world of education, Ciku also works on Frontier Tech Futures Hub to think about the future of impact-driven work, and the role of technology in it. She supports organisations to think and plan strategically on this topic using foresight knowledge.

Ciku also has over 10 years experience working with social enterprises in East Africa, using iterative and human centred approaches to test and refine promising interventions and increase their chances of success and impact, in education and other sectors.

She holds an MSc in Public and Urban Policy from University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, and is an Acumen East Africa Fellow.

Caren Wakoli:

Caren Wakoli is a Certified leadership coach, transformational leadership trainer, certified 7-Habits of Highly Effective People trainer, democracy & good governance champion, and social entrepreneur who delights in mentoring young women and men to be able to achieve their greatest potential in life. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Emerging Leaders Foundation Africa (ELF-Africa); an organisation that nurtures the next generation of ethical leaders for Africa’s transformation. She has over 17 years’ experience of doing youth empowerment work in Kenya and Africa at large. She has taken part in various policy formulation and implementation processes locally and internationally.

Caren has received several recognitions for her commitment to youth and women empowerment, democracy and good governance. In 2018, the 44th President of the United States of America President Barack Obama recognized her and the work of Emerging Leaders Foundation -of promoting dignity and ending poverty through raising youth leaders as positive agents of change in society. In 2018, she was awarded Most Influential Woman in Business and Government (Civil Society and welfare category) in East Africa by CEO Global. In 2017, she was profiled by the East African Standard Newspaper as one of the most influential women in East Africa. 

Caren serves on various boards where she advocates for youth voice and effective representation. She has a Master’s degree in International studies and Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Sociology, both from the University of Nairobi.